Jollibee, Oishi push expansion in Vietnam

Fast food giant Jollibee Foods Corp. and Liwayway Marketing Corp., owner of the Oishi brand of snack foods, are making an expansion push in Vietnam in a bid to capture a bigger market share in the region.

The expansion plans were disclosed during a meeting over the weekend of the top executives of the two food groups with a visiting delegation of the Tuesday Club, headed by its chairman Antonio Katigbak where the changes in the food offerings were introduced to cater to the vegetable-loving Vietnamese.

Jollibee Vietnam Co. Ltd. country head Jojo Subido said the company is embarking on a 10-branch expansion plan outside Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) to add to the present 10 stores, eight of which are company owned. Subido said that the 11th Jollibee store in Vietnam will open this month at Bien Hoa City, Dona Nai province, the first store outside Ho Chi Minh City.

Le Huang Vu, Jollibee marketing officer, also told the Tuesday Club, an exclusive group of media men, business personalities, politicians and analysts that meet every week at Edsa Shangri La Manila, that Jollibee had to come up with new offerings to conform with the quaint Vietnamese palate.

Vu said that Jollibee’s flagship brand, Chicken Joy, is served with a twist: Com Ga (chicken rice) with vegetable garnish and vegetable soup. The Vietnamese stores also serve chili chicken wings which the visiting group sampled during a visit to the Jollibee Dinh Tien Hoang store.

Other Jollibee officials who attended to the visiting Tuesday Club members were Jonx Jongko, marketing manager, Arline Adeva, PR manager, and Gilda Maquiba, Jollibee Group corporate communications manager.

Liwayway Marketing president and general manager Oszen  A. Chan earlier disclosed his company’s expansion plans in Vietnam, a country of 85 million people known for its exquisite cuisine. Oishi, Chan said, is similarly embarking on the expansion of its product line. The company has snack food presence both in Ho Chi Minh City and in its capital, Hanoi.

The husband-wife team of Robert Li and Kerry Tin Li are now busy overseeing Oishi’s increased presence in Vietnam. The two oversee the Vietnam Liwayway Food Industry Co. Ltd., and Cong Ty Phan Liwayway Vietnam.

The visit of the Tuesday Club to Vietnam is the third that the group has undertaken as part of an observation tour of different countries in the region to see how home-grown talents are pitting their skills and expertise in their areas of work. Two years ago, the late Philippine STAR publisher and Tuesday Club chairman Max V. Soliven, headed the group that went to Shanghai where they got to know first hand the expansion plans of taipans Lucio C. Tan and George S.K. Ty. The next visit was at the invitation of Liwayway Marketing Corp. chief executive Carlos Chan also to China. – Lito U. Gagni